If this is your first visit, be sure to
check out the FAQ by clicking the
link above. You may have to register
before you can post: click the register link above to proceed. To start viewing messages,
select the forum that you want to visit from the selection below.

Khronos Group Posts Their Vulkan + SPIR-V Q&A

Phoronix: Khronos Group Posts Their Vulkan + SPIR-V Q&A

Beyond posting their OpenCL 2.1 technical overview session to YouTube, the Khronos Group has now uploaded their Vulkan and SPIR-V question and answer session too for those wishing to learn more about this new graphics API and graphics/compute intermediate representation...

So the AMD guy said, Vulkan is basically Mantle. Now I'm wondering, if the mantle based games as Beyond Earth will get ported to Vulkan and thus be available on Linux as an alternative to their OpenGL ports. This might be nice, as the Mantle versions tend to be better optimized than the OpenGL versions.

So the AMD guy said, Vulkan is basically Mantle. Now I'm wondering, if the mantle based games as Beyond Earth will get ported to Vulkan and thus be available on Linux as an alternative to their OpenGL ports. This might be nice, as the Mantle versions tend to be better optimized than the OpenGL versions.

DICE already said they'll port Frostbite to Vulkan. they said something in line of being more or less trivial. but, if you'll see it on Linux or not, that is completely separate question. even if answer is yes, it probably won't be before SteamOS is released

also, it was said many time that AZDO optimized GL was already near "bare metal". but, if you look from another perspective, GL drivers differ too much to be able to use it. Vulkan is AZDO like by default and all drivers should handle it from start

So the AMD guy said, Vulkan is basically Mantle. Now I'm wondering, if the mantle based games as Beyond Earth will get ported to Vulkan and thus be available on Linux as an alternative to their OpenGL ports. This might be nice, as the Mantle versions tend to be better optimized than the OpenGL versions.

From the developer's perspective, is there a reason to do so. Just to be faster is not a business reason to turn this. Get more publicity IS a reason to turn this on. Which is probably the reason they ported to Linux in the first place.

Will it actually increase their customer base? Here's where it gets interesting. If everything we are hoping from Vulkan is true, and we get first class drivers across the board from Nvidia, AMD, Intel and all the ARM chips, then the case can be made that it will increase the number of users reached with very little overhead in changing the engine, since it already supports Mantle, and Vulkan and Mantle share the same programming model.

If Steam Machines sell 500 thousand units, then that will be 500 thousand guaranteed customer availability with Vulkan support. (Did anybody else notice that for Steam Machines to support Vulkan, Vulkan should be finished and going before Nov.?) While 500 thousand is not a lot, and not everyone of them will buy the game, 500 thousand potential customers for a game that has already been shipped, and has presumably steadily tread along the obsolescence time line of games, a bump like that can be a juicy target.

This is still a $50 - $70 (USD) dollar game so a maximum return for the work could be up to $35 (USD) million. But lets assume it is 10% of that could still be $3.5 (USD) million. These types of incentives are what motivate game companies.

Then, they get all the publicity involved with SteamOS/Steam Machines, Vulkan, I presume there will be a battle between DX12 only on Windows 10, and Vulkan will support XP and up, and Linux, OS X, iOS, and Android. (I hope. It will make a stronger statement that way. But a good subset of these will be supported.) And the stars will be aligned for not just Beyond Earth, but for many more titles as well.

DICE already said they'll port Frostbite to Vulkan. they said something in line of being more or less trivial. but, if you'll see it on Linux or not, that is completely separate question. even if answer is yes, it probably won't be before SteamOS is released

also, it was said many time that AZDO optimized GL was already near "bare metal". but, if you look from another perspective, GL drivers differ too much to be able to use it. Vulkan is AZDO like by default and all drivers should handle it from start

FYI, Beyond Earth is already on Linux. If they already have a Mantle subsystem, then porting should indeed be non-trivial. They would need to validate against the Vulkan implementation, then ensure their port to Linux didn't mess with that pipeline. Its not quite as easy as flipping a switch, but it is doable relatively quickly.

FYI, Beyond Earth is already on Linux. If they already have a Mantle subsystem, then porting should indeed be non-trivial. They would need to validate against the Vulkan implementation, then ensure their port to Linux didn't mess with that pipeline. Its not quite as easy as flipping a switch, but it is doable relatively quickly.

first off, what i was referring to was comment from DICE, which said they are similar

in general, it probably makes no sense in porting until spec is finished even for those involved in Vulkan which DICE was part of it as well as being part of making Mantle. they also released Mantle based BF4, so i'd say it is reasonable to believe person like this would be the best judge in how much work it is required to get from one to another.

it would probably make much less sense to port now for a company like Aspyr that will hit the books once it is finished

FYI, Beyond Earth is already on Linux. If they already have a Mantle subsystem, then porting should indeed be non-trivial. They would need to validate against the Vulkan implementation, then ensure their port to Linux didn't mess with that pipeline. Its not quite as easy as flipping a switch, but it is doable relatively quickly.

First, I don't consider any programing to be trivial when it involves codebase as large as these games. So, no, I didn't mean it will be trivial. You could say, however, that it would be trivial, once the drivers are available, compared to the initial OpenGL port, or the initial Mantle port, since the largest part of the work is done, and all that is left is fine tuning.